Moonlight Trails
by The Sum of Ash n' Misty
Summary: One troubled night, Ash decides to take a stroll in the woods by himself. Then he disapears without a trace.... where could he be? Misty is determined to find out, read on to see what happens. (Ash and Misty pairing)


Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon ****

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon

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Dedication: For Dark_Rainbow who wrote the first good Pokemon story I read.

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Author's Note: This is my first Ash+Misty fanfic, it might suck but I did try. Anyway.. just read. Give me a chance here, it IS my first, if you read and you don't like that's okay, just as long someone took a look at this. I have a feeling that I'm not going to write anymore of these... anyway don't like how I wrote it? Flame ahead, I don't give a damn, just make sure you make an effort in finding my mistakes. Always a pleasure to see what people think of my work.

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Summary: One troubled night, Ash decides to take a stroll in the woods by himself. Then he disapears without a trace.... where could he be? Misty is determined to find out, read on to see what happens. (Ash and Misty pairing)

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Do Not: ask me about the tittle or give me a crummy flame that makes no sense, nvm, do what u feel like doing.

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Warning: there might be some minor cussing, you have been warned.

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Moonlight Trails

~The Sum Of Ash n' Misty

"Ash... hand it over." Misty demanded as her azure eyes narrowed in a look that Ash knew all too well. "It's mine, give it or I start screaming."

Ash opened his eyes widely, giving the impression of absolute innocence. Misty didn't buy that, she knew him too well. "Give what?" he asked, still keeping the clueless look that he was so good at.

Misty groaned, "You know what I'm talking about. It's mine, give it back! I know what you plan to do with my Poliwhirl so you might as well just give up. I know battling is important to you but you have to win with your own pokemon."

"Fine." Ash mumbled with a slight pout evident on his face. "Have it your way, you can have your puny Poliwhirl back if you like it so much. I didn't need it that much anyway, it sucked."

Just as Misty was about to toss him another retort Brock appeared. "Hi guys, I just found that pokemon center we were looking for, lets go!" then seeing their angry glares at each other as they paid no heed to him, he backed away. "You two just can't stop fighting with each other can you?"

They both turned to him angrily and shouted in unison, "No!" apon saying that they looked at each other realizing that they said the same thing and continued glaring.

*~*~*

At the Pokemon Center...

"Can't we just get along?" Brock said and when he recieved no answer from either Ash or Misty he sighed in resignation. "Why do I even try?" he asked himself.

Ash allowed himself a small grin as he took a peek at Misty's face, then he quickly covered it with a dark frown. _What am I thinking? This is Misty, the scrawny brat I'm looking at! Then why am I having all these thoughts... then again... she's so cute when she's mad.. What did **that** come from? Remember, this is Misty... only Misty..._

Unfortunately for Ash, Misty had been looking at him with a deep frown and saw his dreamy smile. She blinked in confusion, _Is it just me or did Ash smile at me? Oh please don't tell me I need glasses... _

"All your pokemon are just fine now!" Nurse Joy appeared, "You can get them now..." her voice faded Brock came up to her.

"The pokemon may be okay but my heart will never..." Brock began as usual but this time, Misty didn't have the heart to drag him away...

*~*~*

"Misty?" Ash called, "I think I just found a water pokemon..."

She quickly awoke from her thoughtful trance and looked up eagerly, "Where?" she asked, forgetting all about their arguement. She looked in the direction of his finger and tried in vain to suppress her smile. "Ash," she started, "That is no water pokemon, but I have a feeling you already know that."

Ash sighed and sat beside her, "I know but I had to do something. You know I can't stand it when your not talking to me..." he pulled the seaweed off Pikachu absentmindedly, then played with the strap of his backbag. Finally deciding he couldn't stare at his feet for the rest of his life, he looked up at Misty, expecting to see her pulling out the familiar mallet.

Instead, she was giving him a warm smile. It wasn't often that he could put aside his pride and huge ego to apologize to her. "It was a silly argument anyway..." Misty admitted. "I think I should be the one apologizing here, I shouldn't have let my temper get out of control."

"Don't I know it..." Ash muttered as Misty turned around to give him a quizzical look. She felt her temper rise again but seeing his wide grin she laughed.

"Heh..." Misty giggled softly, and for once, she had nothing else to say.

*~*~*

Deep in the forest, Ash, Misty, and Brock were walking, it was getting dark. Misty involunteerily clutched Ash's left arm and let out a shriek. "Ahhhhhh!! There's a caterpie!" after saying that she tried to bury her head in Ash's chest, fear controlling her actions.

Ash stared at the trembling Misty in amazement, "Gee Mist, it's only a tree branch. Will you please let go of me now? I'm starting to have trouble breathing and I think my blood circulation just got cut off."

"I..." Misty flushed a deep red, "I.. I knew that... heheh... just trying to.. er... trick you... yea... that's it... trick you..." she said unconvincingly, knowing that as dense as Ash was, he wouldn't believe that excuse.

"Riiiiiiight..." Ash said skeptically and a yawn escaped from his mouth. Grinning sheepishly he said, "It's getting late, maybe we should camp out?"

Brock spoke up, "Ash is right, we need sleep and we'll continue walking tommorow." he then sighed and but his heavy backbag down on the ground and took out a sleeping bag. "I'm... sleepy...." without even setting a fire, fixing food, or anything else, Brock snuggled in his sleeping bag happily and was soon asleep.

Ash and Misty exchanged confused looks as they watched Brock sleep soundly. Misty jumped as she heard a low growl, "Ash... d-d-did you hear that...? Maybe we should wake Brock up... I think there's something here..." she whispered to Ash, her voice low and stuttering.

Instead of looking worried, Ash just laughed in an embarassed way and answered, "That was just my stomach, I'm hungry."

Misty promply fell over, "Hungry?!" she exclaimed, "We just ate!" without another word she just rolled her eyes, trying to discuss this with Ash is like talking to a log. It was no use, Ash was always hungry 24/7.

Ash had a huge grin on. _Why do I keep grinning when I look at her? It's not like I have a crush on her or anything. But it's true... that she has a big heart. Like that time.. in the orange islands... she could have chosen to stay with Rudy... and lived the good life. She could have had everything she wanted... why stay with me? Gosh, I was so glad she wanted to stay with me... where would I be if she didn't come..._ Ash could just imagine himself going back home and giving up his pokemon dream if that happened. He didn't know why but he felt a special connection with Misty.

Misty started to get self conciense, yet even so, Ash kept looking at her like he saw something new. She started to fidget. _Why is he staring at me? This isn't the first time I caught him doing that... maybe he's trying to tell me something, he knows I'm not physhic though.. geez.. I wish I was. Then I would know what he's thinking... Could he be thinking of me? Yea.. probably that I'm so annoying... a scrawny runt that keeps following him around... if anything he's probably wishing I stayed with Rudy... In fact, come to think of it, why didn't I? .... Life is so confusing..._

Surprisingly, Ash was the first one to break the stare. "Er... well... Misty, looks like we should... um... get to sleep now... I mean before... before.... I er... well.. nevermind..." he stuttered, looking at the rock by his foot as if he had just discovered something strange about it. He ducked his head lower again to cover his flushed face.

"Yea... we'd better..." Misty agreed softly as she wondered about the sudden change of mood whenever she was around him. A few days ago they would have argued about everything but now they seemed to have nothing at all to talk about. Internally she sighed, wishing she knew what was wrong with herself.

A few minutes later, Misty was fast asleep and Ash was still awake and troubled. _Ah... look at her, why did I never notice before how peaceful she looks when she sleeps... no wait, remember, I hate Misty... no I don't... not hate... I mean.. Misty is just my friend... oh who am I kidding... I like her... yes, like... wait... no maybe love... this is so confusing, I wanna go to sleep but I can't... I can just lay here in my sleeping bag staring at her beautiful face... ack, I'm getting all sappy now. I have to stop thinking... stop... stop... stop..._

A few hours later, Ash was _still_ awake and very much troubled, again. He finally gave up trying to sleep and stood up, maybe it would do him good to roam around a bit. The moon was out, shining brightly. He looked up at it, there was something very strange about that moon....

__

~*~*~

"Brock, Brock, wake up!" Misty shook him frantically.

"Just a few more minutes... please..." He muttered sleepily as he turned away from her and prepared to go back into his dream. "Will you marry me Nurse Joy... ... ... no need to fight over me girls... enough of me for everyone.... ... ...." he murmered happily and it was too obvious what he was dreaming about.

Misty let out a frustrated groan and yelled in his ear, "ASH IS MISSING!!" at the top of her lungs.

Brock opened his eyes (not that you can even see him OPEN it), and stood up aruptly, "He's what? Missing? He probably went out for a walk or something... you don't need to worry about him..." Brock waved his hand as if to dismiss the thought.

Misty wasn't so ready to give up though, "But it's 5:34 in the morning!! He doesn't even wake up til at LEAST 10:50! Not to mention he also left his pokemon here, even Pikachu! And we both know that know matter where he goes, Pikachu goes."

"You're right about that..." Brock agreed reluctantly, "But where could he have gone? Knowing Ash he probably just ran off after a pokemon or something. Remember? He becomes a whole different person when he's after a pokemon. Don't worry about it Misty, you worry too much. Anyway, since when did you start worrying about Ash?"

Misty looked away. "Well... I'm not worried about him... I'm just worried about.. er... Pikachu... yea.. that's right... I'm worried that Pikachu won't have a trainer anymore... I'm not worried about Ash..." she lied. _Why did I just say that?! I didn't mean to lie... of course I care about Ash... whoa, and since when did I start to think that? Of course... Brock is right... he has to be... Ash can take care of himself... can't he?_ Misty tried to convince herself, and failed. She just couldn't shake off the feeling that Ash was in trouble.

"Riiiiiight..." Brock answered skeptically. "I better prepare food now, he'll be back Misty, once he gets hungry."

"Alright alright... so maybe I am just a little worried about Ash..." Misty admitted, "After all, he is my best friend... and well... where would I be right now if he hadn't came into my life...? Probably back in Cerulean being laughed at by my sisters..." Misty continued talking, unaware that Brock realized that she was in her yapping mood again and started to read a book.

After a while, Brock felt sleepy, he knew he shouldn't be mean but he just couldn't stand another word from her about Ash again. "Er.. Misty, maybe you're right... I think Ash is in trouble, why don't you go look for him? I'll just stay here and wait to see if he comes back." he interupted. _Anything to shut her up._

Misty's face immediately changed into one of concern, "You really think so? That he might be in trouble? I'll go look... I think you're right..." without another word, she rushed off into the forest.

Brock shook his head, she was just too gullible once the subject came to Ash...

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~*~*~

"Ash...?!" Misty called, "Where are you?"

She sat down dejectedly, it had been over an hour and he was still no where to be seen. What if he was really in trouble? Misty closed her eyes in horror as she imagined him being ripped to shreds by an angry looking Aerodactyl or... caterpie? Forcing the image out of her head, she stood up and continued her search once again.

"Ash?! This is soooo not funny! If you're out there hiding or something I'm am never going to forgive you!" she warned. _What could have happened to him...? Oh Ash... I hate you for making me feel so weak at the thought of you getting hurt.... I've never felt like this before and I certainly never thought I would about a guy I fished out of the water..._

Looking up at the sky, she saw that the sun had been long gone and the area was covered in darkness and she slowly, involenteerily fell asleep...

__

"Misty, I want to tell you something..." Ash looked at her seriously, "I've always had a crush on you and now it's grown to something bigger..."

"And your point is...?" Misty asked, her voice bored, covering up her eagerness.

"My point is... Misty... I love you." He leaned closer to kiss her and... suddenly...

"Caterpie" she heard.

Misty opened her eyes, it was all a dream... all except the 'caterpie' part. One was right on top of her! She shrieked in a considerably loud voice. "Eww, get away from me!"

Then after it skittered off, Misty felt somewhat disapointed. _That one looked like the one Ash used to have... Ash.. oh where is he... I've been dreaming about him again... maybe I love him? No... that can't be... he's just.... Ash... we argue all the time, it wouldn't work out..._

"Misty, hey, is that you misty?!" She turned around expecting to see Ash but instead came face to face with Brock.

"What is it?" she asked, seeing his terror stricken face.

He paled, "People have been disapearing around these parts lately. We better leave, I almost thought that you had disapeared too." he paused and took a huge breath, "And before you ask, I found out because I was listening to the radio... yes, the broken one, I fixed it. Anyway, I don't want to become pokemon food so let's get out of here!"

"B-b-b-but... what about Ash?" Misty frowned, "What about him? We can't leave him in here... if it's as dangerous as you say it is..."

Brock shook his head, "I know Misty, I'm really sorry... there's just no way we can find him now... for all we know he could be dead by that new thing in these woods. They say that the last thing the victim sees is the full moon... then they're gone. Do you remember the first day we slept in the woods? Well on that day, 500 pokemon trainers disapeared in here, including Ash. There's nothing we can do, and if I know Ash, he'll want us to get out of here."

Misty felt numb, she couldn't imagine life without Ash. Could he really be gone? "I don't believe you! Ash is still alive out there... I'll prove it to you..." Misty broke down in a fit of sobs and hiccups. "He can't be gone... he just can't..."

Brock tried to comfort her, "I know Misty... it doesn't seem posible but it happened... Ash is gone... but the police force wants everyone out of there now..."

"No!" Misty shook her head violently, refusing to believe him. "Ash isn't gone! He couldn't have... left me..." she choked on her words. "He promised he wouldn't... one day.... he said... he would never leave me... he said that that was one promise he would keep... along with paying me back for my bike..."

"Misty..." Brock sighed, "I'm sad about this too but... we have to get out of here, do you think Ash would be happy if he found out that you died too?"

Misty quieted, "No.." she murmered softly. "He wouldn't be happy.." then her eyes filled up with tears again, she just couldn't except that Ash was gone, she refused to. _He's not gone... he can't be... he's strong.... he'll survive... he can't be gone.. no.. he's gonna live... I'm going in again and I won't come out until I find him!_

Brock reached out to rub her back but she broke away and ran back into the forest. Sighing, he debated whether to go after her. He was just about to run back in when Officer Jenny came up to him. "You aren't thinking of going back in there are you? Didn't you hear? You can't go back in, you'll get captured."

"But..." he protested helplessly, "My friends... they're in there..."

Officer Jenny shook her head silently and dragged him off. "You can't go back in, how many times do I have to tell you that..."

~*~*~

Misty looked around the woods desperately for any signs of him. "Ash... please don't leave me..." she cried. "Hang in there..."

Every shadow in the forest looked like Ash's shadow but none were really his. Misty ran around in every direction possible and stopped suddenly when she realized she was lost. Time had passed quickly and Misty found that the sun had went down already... along with her hopes of finding Ash alive. All she could do was sit on a stump and cry.

"Oh Ash.." she said like so many times before, "I wish you where here with me... making jokes... trying to make me laugh.... where are you..." Misty was sitting by a lake and when she looked into the water.. it reflected the image of the sky. The stars were twinkling brightly and it was quite a sight, only.. Misty's attention was directed elsewhere.

In the water, she could see a full moon... the same one that supposably all the missing people saw before disapearing. Misty had made her decision, if she couldn't find Ash, she hoped that something would happen so she would be gone too. She wanted to die the way Ash did. But as she moved up her head to look at the glowing moon, something in the water caught her eye.

It was Ash... Misty quickly looked behind her but there was no signs of him. She looked back in the water and there he was again, yet he was no where else to be seen. _Maybe I've really gone crazy..._

"No, you're not crazy." the figure in the water said to her, "It's me, Ash. Listen, there's something weird going on and no matter what you do.. don't look directly into the full moon in this forest. There is something really weird with it. No time to explain, just follow the moonlight trails..." his voice faded as so did his image.

"No! Ash... come back!" Misty put her hands into the water in an instinct to bring him back but the water just rippled with her movements, "Ash, you jerk! You know I can't do this.... without you..." her voice grew lower, barely a whisper, "Don't you know that I'm nothing without you.. don't you know that I don't _want_ to be anything without you..?"

For a while, Misty sat there, crying in her arms, trying in vain to bring Ash back to her. "What the hell is moonlight trails anyway...." she muttered finally, wiping her tears away only to have more pour out of her red eyes. "Ash..." she murmured again. How did this happen? A few days ago, they were argueing and now.. he was missing.

As Misty squared her slender shoulders, she heard a voice, Ash's voice. "Misty, I'm really sorry about before, I can't explain much but.. I know you can do this. Just trust in yourself, have heart, have hope, I'm sure you'll do just fine."

"Ash?" she asked in bewilderment, "Where are you?" but there was no answer. "Dammit Ash! Why did you have to go and get lost anyway?!" she screamed into the sky, careful to avoid the moon.

As tears ran down her face again, she stared at the forest through them. "What the hell..." she muttered, through her tears she could see these strange glowing footprints. Everything around it was dark, all except those marks. "Is this what Ash meant?" it sure seemed like it. It was almost as if everything else around the moon was blocked, only letting through some light to leave a trail. It was definately the strangest thing Misty had ever seen.

~*~*~

"Let them go!" Misty screamed at the young lady she met at the end of the trail.

The other girl with jet black hair only smirked sinisterly, "Why? I was having so much fun. Did you know that your precious Ash is the cutest one out of all that I collected?"

"Collected?!" Misty blinked, _She's such a sicko, what kind of freak collects human beings?!. _"Are you mad? People don't collect other people!"

"Well I do." she stated simply, staring at her nails like Misty was only a little child throwing a fit. "They are just so fun to play with. When I get bored of them I just store them in a cage until I feel like letting them out. Too bad Ashy here had to try and contact you. I really liked him, but he wouldn't obey me."

"You are sick." Misty spat out in utter disgust. "You can't just hold other people against their will! And what did you do with Ash?"

"Mind your manners." the girl answered calmly, "Oh, and Ash? I just prepared the ultimate punishment for him. He disobeyed me and I can't have that going on here. He does love you, he tried so hard to save you from your fate. Without him you would have looked directly in the moon. That's just too bad he had to interfere. That's just a pity, I'm going to have a hard time killing him."

Misty stared at her in horror, she spoke so coldly, as if she didn't care about killing anything. It was all a game to her, everything was.

"Anyway, my name is Dinerva." the girl continued casually, "I'll have to kill you now, maybe if I do, Ash will just come crawling back to me and apologize." a slight smile formed on her face. "It'd be so fun."

Misty growled involeenterily, "You're just a little bitch aren't you?"

"Me?" Dinerva asked, "Of course. Anyway, you aren't any better with your mallet and all. You like to keep Ash in line and so do I. We should be friends."

"Friends?!" the angry redhead screamed, "You are a horrible person, don't ever say that I'm like you! The only reason I do that to Ash is only because I don't want him to know how I feel."

After saying so, Misty covered her mouth, eyes wide with horror.

A smirk appeared on Dinerva's face, "So you like him don't you.... this is going to be more fun than I thought."

Just then Ash came up from behind her, "Hi girls." he greeted cheerfully.

Misty turned her head up to look at him, "Ash, you're okay!"

"Sure I am." he answered with a smile that was meant only for her, "What did you think? I'm not that pathetic, dispite popular belief."

Dinerva saw her chance and sneaked away.

Misty and Ash were too busy staring deep into each other's eyes to notice. "Misty...... I......" Ash started softly.

"You idiot!" Misty snapped out of her daydream and wacked him over his head, "Why didn't you come sooner? I could have been killed!"

"I know Misty.... and I'm really sorry.." Ash apologized, his voice still carrying the soft quality as before to Misty's surprise. "It was all my fault, I should have never asked for you to come here and save me."

Misty felt her heart melt in compassion for the dark haired boy who stood in front of her. "Just don't ask me to do that again, I think I broke some nails." Misty smiled.

Ash nodded, knowing that even that was hard for Misty to swallow her pride and admit in her own way that she cared for him. As for more than a friend, he didn't quite know.

Out of nowhere, Misty leaned forward and hugged Ash tightly, whispering in his ear, "You're an idiot Ash but I love you anyhow."

Although Misty believed he couldn't hear her, he replied, "I love you too." Without another word, he bent down (Note: let's just say he's taller than her) and placed a soft kiss on her lips.

He turned around briskly and started to walk out of the forest and Misty was left behind. She put a finger on her lips, still warm from his shy kiss, and a grin lit up her face. "Ash, wait up!"

She ran after him, and she knew that their adventures together would be alot different from then on.

__

Deep into the forest, hidden in one of the many shadows, a girl smiles, "You haven't seen the end of me yet."

Note:

That's the end, sorry to those that found it stupid but I really wanted to finish this. I'm glad you finished reading my story, please review! It's really helpful for a new writer to hear that someone actually read my stories. Thanks a bunch! I'd really like to write more of these and I'll need alot of encouragement. *hint hint* Anyway, should I make a sequel?

till next time,

~The Sum of Ash n' Misty


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